TAP— THUD—
Ikael climbed the Bakuba Volcano. The rocky cave near the volcano's summit was the forge.
‘Still a long way to go.’
Even with the ground far below him, the forge showed no sign of drawing any closer.
Only after struggling for several hours did Ikael finally reach the forge in the rocky cave.
BANG— BANG—
The moment he entered the forge cave, the sound of hammering assaulted his ears.
‘Ugh, it's loud.’
The hammering had been deafening even from far away, but hearing it directly in the forge was unbearable.
The clamor of scrap iron striking scrap iron was like a giant clashing its teeth together.
After covering his ears, Ikael looked around the forge.
At the center of the volcanic cave sat a small old man, wildly swinging a hammer as large as his own body.
‘That is Volcanic Blacksmith Denta.’
Ikael had seen Denta a few times in his previous life.
Denta, a blacksmith said to be of half-dwarf blood, had dark skin and pointed nose and ear tips, giving him the impression of a mole.
He looked much younger than he had in Ikael's previous life, but his stubborn expression had not changed.
“Hey, old man!”
Ikael went up to Volcanic Blacksmith Denta and shouted at the top of his lungs.
Though Denta had clearly seen him, he pretended not to notice and kept hammering the sword.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Ikael shouted again over the deafening hammering.
“Hey!”
Calling him again made no difference.
‘This old man…’
This time, Ikael took out Kairon's handwritten letter and waved it in front of the blacksmith.
“Look…”
CLANG—
“Ah, Lord Kairon!”
Denta immediately threw aside his iron hammer and prostrated himself on the ground.
Ikael was dumbfounded.
The Volcanic Blacksmith who had openly ignored him had spotted Kairon's handwritten letter and prostrated himself on the ground.
It was just like a blacksmith who served only Kairon.
Denta asked in a voice that clanged like a hammer.
“You are Recrit's Young Master?”
“As you can see, I am—!”
Ikael shouted at Denta, who seemed hard of hearing.
“Forge a sword for me!”
Ikael took the seventh Demon Sword from his bundle and showed it to the blacksmith.
THUMP. THUMP.
The moment he presented the Demon Sword, Ikael's heart grew hot as if it were being tempered.
It was the moment he had waited for throughout both his previous life and this one.
‘I'll obtain the Recrit Sword.’
That sword, which only Kairon's children could obtain, was entering his hands.
He still could not believe it.
Yet after taking the Demon Sword, Denta merely examined it this way and that in silence for a long while.
At last, Volcanic Blacksmith Denta opened his mouth.
“A sword that devours its master. Do not carry it around! Young Master, do you have two lives?!”
Denta barked at the top of his lungs.
‘What's with this old man?’
Ikael was taken aback.
This was a completely unexpected response. He was being reprimanded out of the blue.
At the same time, Ikael was slightly surprised by Denta's discerning eye.
‘Denta… Could he sense the power of the seventh Demon Sword just by brushing it?’
The Demon Sword felt different depending on the person who touched it.
To people like the bandit gang, who had absolutely no sense for swords, even if they held the Demon Sword, it would only feel like an ordinary lump of scrap iron.
But with just a few strokes, Denta had accurately discerned the identity of the seventh Demon Sword.
‘Well, then. He's worthy of being entrusted with the Demon Sword.’
But being impressed was one thing, and Ikael had no intention of backing down in the slightest.
The seventh Demon Sword was something Ikael had clearly obtained through his own efforts.
Ikael presented Kairon's handwritten letter again.
“Lord Kairon personally sent a letter. He ordered you to forge a sword for me. So why are you saying that you can't?”
Denta stubbornly pointed at part of the letter.
“Look, it is written here! If he appears qualified to possess a Demon Sword, forge a sword for him!”
“So?”
“That sword does not suit you, Young Master! It suits only a strong swordsman like Lord Kairon!”
“It sounds as though you are saying that I am weak.”
“Exactly!”
Spit flew from Denta's mole-like pointed mouth.
Ikael was beginning to get annoyed.
“I forge a sword only for one who climbed Bakuba Volcano himself! This is Lord Kairon's will!”
But as Ikael listened, something seemed strange.
‘What's with this old man? Does he suspect that I used some kind of shortcut?’
It was understandable. The seventh Demon Sword was more vicious than any before it. It was difficult to believe that a young boy had brought it here alone.
Denta was the blacksmith who had forged all six of Recrit's Demon Swords. He had seen many Demon Swords, but this one was more ominous than anything he had seen before.
‘The seventh Demon Sword. This must not be allowed into the world carelessly. If its master is not the right one, I cannot forge it.’
The young Ikael before his eyes did not yet appear anywhere near that level.
If Ikael had brought another Demon Sword, Denta might have forged it without protest.
Ikael looked as strong as Recrit's other children.
‘But the seventh Demon Sword is different.’
Forging a sword suited to a swordsman's level was Volcanic Blacksmith Denta's strict rule.
The existence of the seventh Demon Sword was a direct challenge to that rule.
Suppressing his anger, Ikael tried to persuade Denta.
“Listen, Denta. To be frank, I don't have much patience. I've been waiting a very long time for a sword of my own.”
From the time he served Recrit in his previous life, Ikael had watched the Demon Swords before his very eyes.
They were dazzling swords, stronger than any weapon on the land.
Knowing that he could never possess a Demon Sword, he had done nothing but suppress his feelings all that time.
But now, the seventh Demon Sword had come into his hands as if flaunting itself.
“So don't make me wait any longer. Forge the Demon Sword. Otherwise… I'll make it so you can never use this again.”
CLANK—
Ikael pulled something out from behind his back and showed it to Denta.
Recognizing it, Denta screamed.
“Ah, my hammer! When did you take it?!”
At some point, Ikael had taken Denta's hammer.
Ikael had seen Denta a few times in his previous life, and each time he could tell that he was a stubborn blacksmith overflowing with pride.
To such a Denta, his hammer was like his own limbs.
‘Above all, this is the very hammer that gave birth to Recrit's famed swords. It must hold extraordinary meaning for a blacksmith who serves Kairon.’
Volcanic Blacksmith Denta trembled all over in embarrassment and rage.
But Ikael did not care.
‘He was the one who started the fight.’
In that case, Ikael's principle was to return it in kind.
CLANG— CLANG!
As though he meant to break the hammer, Ikael swung it lightly once against a rock.
“You understand, don't you? Now forge the sword.”
“Grrr…”
Now Denta had no choice but to at least pretend to forge the sword.
With a deeply furrowed brow, Denta measured Ikael from head to toe, the length of his neck, the distance from his collarbone to his shoulder—every corner of his body.
Then, upon reaching Ikael's heart, Denta's eyes narrowed meaningfully.
The displeased expression disappeared without a trace, replaced by one that seemed to be observing something.
‘This Young Master has something. If he were an ordinary person, the Demon Sword would have devoured him long ago.’
Having dealt with swordsmen his entire life, Denta could gauge a person's physique to some degree simply by looking.
But the energy flowing from Ikael was something he had never felt even once before.
‘What secret does this Young Master have in his heart?’
It was an unknowable, powerful force, like lava writhing beneath a volcano.
It was still rough, but it held enormous potential, like a volcano that would overturn the entire region when it erupted.
‘Did this Young Master truly carry the Demon Sword here by his own strength…?’
Doubts began to sprout in Denta's mind.
Strength beyond one's station was poison.
Whenever Denta saw fools seeking out materials beyond their means and asking him to forge weapons from them, he would berate them and drive them away.
He could not entrust precious swords to those who lacked the qualifications.
That was why he did not readily give a sword to Ikael either.
‘It is impossible for a young boy to handle a sword of this level. Not unless he possesses Dark Aura comparable to Lord Kairon's.’
But if it was this energy swirling in Ikael's heart.
The thought that perhaps it might be possible crossed Denta's mind.
The power he felt from Ikael's heart was that strange.
Whatever happened, Denta sensed that it would be an extremely difficult task.
‘Yet difficult work is fun in its own way.’
Denta smiled secretly.
It had been a long time since he had taken such an interest in a person rather than a lump of iron.
***
Before long, Denta had finished taking all of Ikael's measurements.
“Thank you, old man.”
Only then could Denta get his hammer back.
“Let me ask you one more time, Young Master. Do you truly want the Demon Sword?”
“Yes.”
“Even if you may die?”
“Yes.”
Ikael's answer was resolute.
He had no intention of ever again living a life at Recrit's feet.
Obtaining the seventh Demon Sword was also a foundation for one day repaying Kairon.
Denta began to smile an inscrutable smile.
“Heh heh heh. You are an audacious young master. Yes, having lived your entire life in Recrit's Bronze Castle, it is only natural that a sword would come first. But people are not like swords. Once they break, you cannot reforge them and use them again.”
Denta poured out incomprehensible words in a voice mixed with the sound of iron.
“What?”
“What I mean is.”
CLAAANG—
Denta suddenly drove his hammer down.
The hammer that struck the anvil gave off a strangely resonant sound.
CLAAANG— CLAAANG—
It sounded like a bird shrieking its lungs out.
“Old man… Are you really crazy?”
But Denta paid him no heed and continued pounding the anvil.
A thunderous noise rang throughout Bakuba Volcano.
“Wahahaha! Let us see, Young Master, whether you are qualified to wield a sword!!”
At a loss for words, Ikael stared at the small, mole-like old man.
Then it happened.
SCREEEECH—
As if answering Denta's hammering, a chilling cry rang out.
FLAP— FLAP—
A flock of birds approached from far away.
The flock was so long that, at a glance, it looked like a single black snake.
Ikael immediately sensed that this was no ordinary flock of birds.
“Wahahaha! Go on, face them! My lovely crows!”
“Damn it. How does that look like a crow?!”
They were far too large to be crows.
With their wings spread wide, they were large enough to block the entrance to the forge, and hideous eyes clung to them in clusters like spiders.
Perhaps they had come running in the middle of a meal, for something that looked like human hands and feet was caught in their beaks.
‘To think I would see the crows said to live on Bakuba Volcano like this.’
A single crow was at a level that a One-Star Knight could handle, but their numbers were the problem.
“For Recrit's Young Master, this much should be easy!”
Denta laughed heartily.
“Now, prove it! Prove that you are qualified to wield the seventh Demon Sword!!”
Making him face the crows of Bakuba Volcano was Denta's will, as well as Kairon's.
The strict rule of not giving a sword to the weak was the same for both Denta and Kairon.
In that sense, the crows of Bakuba Volcano were ideal practice opponents.
Whenever Recrit's children came to obtain swords, Denta called the crows together, and Kairon tacitly approved.
‘And the Young Master who has come this time must do much better.’
The seventh Demon Sword was on a different level from the others.
Then Ikael, who sought to become its master, had to prove a strength on a different level as well.
SHING—
Ikael drew his sword and turned around.
“Promise me one thing, old man. If I show you that I'm strong enough to possess a sword, then you'll forge it without another word.”
“I will.”
Denta nodded. At the same time, Ikael soared into the air.
WHOOSH!
The next moment, Denta was stunned.